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The Chinese government has just released a white paper detailing its plans for the next five years in space, which it does every five years. The program has several goals that it wants to accomplish in the next five years, both with other countries and on its own.

More Space Laboratories and Human Spaceflight

One major priority for the Chinese program is to continue its permanent presence in Earth's orbit through its space laboratory program. China plans on putting more laboratories in orbit for study, since right now they have still not been permitted to join crews at the International Space Station. China plans a manned mission to dock with its current orbiting laboratory, the Tiangong-1.

The paper also indicates that China wants to work towards longer stays in space for its astronauts. This work includes "breakthroughs in ... astronauts' medium-term stay, regenerative life support and propellant refueling." The paper also indicates a continuation of its work to build a permanent space station in orbit for Chinese use.

Better Launch Systems

Another priority of the Chinese space program is to improve its launch facilities. Its next generation rocket, the Long March-5, will use a "non-toxic and pollution-free propellant, and will be capable of placing 25 tons of payload into the near-Earth orbit, or placing 14 tons of payload into the GEO orbit."

Other planned launch vehicles, the Long March 6 and 7, will be "new type of high-speed response launch vehicle." These will focus on delivering payloads into sun-synchronous orbits.

This focus on launch delivery also extends to the country's launch sites, which the country plans to "enhance the reliability and automation level" of. The white paper also indicates that the Hainan launch site will be completed in the next five years. Although some launches have already taken place from this site, it's not yet complete.

Completing this site is a major step for the Chinese space program. The Hainan launch site is a low-latitude launch site, meaning it's not far from the equator. As a result, launches from this site will be able to practically deliver larger payloads into orbit. That's essential for some of the more ambitious projects that China is pushing for.

Pushing For the Moon And Deep Space

Of particular interest about this white paper is a definite focus on moving the Chinese space program past just orbital concerns. Already, the Chinese have suffered a setback because their first satellite intended to orbit Mars was part of the payload of the Russian Phobos-Grunt probe, which failed to leave Earth's orbit.

However, the white paper is clearly indicative of a desire for more ambitious deep space missions, with a goal towards pushing forward "its exploration of planets, asteroids and the sun of the solar system." A demonstration of such a project is on the agenda for the next five years.

The next five years will also see China paving the way towards putting a human being on the Moon, making it only the second country to have done so. China has already successfully launched two lunar orbiters in 2007 and 2010. For its next phase, China plans to put rovers on the Moon to collect samples. After that, during this five year period China also plans to send a rover to the Moon, collect samples, and then return to Earth.

As it conducts these unmanned missions, the white paper also indicates that China will "conduct studies on the preliminary plan for a human lunar landing." At the present time, there aren't any indications that it expects to complete that mission by 2017, however.

All-in-all though, while China is currently treading ground that the United States and Russia have already covered, it's rapidly improving its spaceflight capabilities. I expect that it will have some extremely exciting missions going forward, and I would not be surprised to see the country put a person on the Moon within a decade.